We Found a Home!

Ahh yes. We did it. We found a place, successfully navigated and multiple bid offer and came out on top. Can you believe it? Sometimes I can't either. I will say, the whole process was not quite what I thought it would be. It's pretty crazy. Let me tell ya how it went down...

First off, we went to Dave Ramsey's website to use his ELP's that he has listed on his site. He recommended three of them that were in our general area and then they all contacted us. Literally, almost as soon as I clicked "submit" I had 5 different phone calls. It was a tad bit overwhelming and I didn't answer any of them. Then, when I got home I listened to my 5 voicemails and read my e-mails and figured out who was who.

Then, Rob and I downloaded a Real Estate Agent Interview Questionnaire form from this book that I bought called "Buying Your First Home." We conducted our phone interviews with this questionnaire... I did two and Robert did one. Then, we compared notes. Can I just say that Robert was a WAY better note taker than me?? I kind of just write like "keywords" and write all over the page.... not necessarily by the question I'm asking. The one thing about these "keywords" are... I can't actually remember what they are supposed to mean. They all sounded very friendly though and we kind of went with our "gut feeling" based on their answers and our conversations.

We slept on it for three nights before ultimately deciding, but we decided on Creston from IndyQuest. We set up a personal meeting with him at a coffee shop we really discussed our needs and wants. He gave us tips on some of the developments and areas we were looking at and what a "reasonable" price range was for what we were looking for. Basically, he verified everything we already knew based on just driving around every weekend. Additionally, the Houston Heights has been the number one selling area in Houston since like 2007. With the market crash. So, we knew buying there would be a relatively smart choice.

He set up a list for us to choose our houses from and then we selected 14 for our first round through. But let me stop here for a sec... here's is my one and only beef about this realtor thing. And I think its like this when working with realtors in our budget.. but I could be wrong. But, my realtor didn't really suggest any particular houses for me. I guess from watching HGTV, I expected him to call me up and say, "hey... this house just came on the market" or "I think this house fits your needs, let's schedule a meeting." But, I did all of the real searching for a house. Ironically, the house we ended up putting an offer on wasn't even on his list for me even thought it was in the criteria. So, that's my only beef. But, from talking to other people this seems to be rather normal. What do you think?

So.. our very first house we went to see was 783 Waverly. I pretty much fell in love right away with the area and the fact that it was close to the bike trail. Really, from all the driving Rob and I had done, I felt like this area was AMAZING. No industrial in the direct vicinity and the surrounding area had, for the most part, been completely developed. The house we were looking at was still under construction.

I knew after seeing it that this would likely be "the house," but we made it through all of the others with our agent and then went to see my grandparents and such for Easter. On the following Tuesday we met up with our realtor to look at a few more and then ultimately decide to go with Waverly. Well, on Tuesday... Waverly went off the market. It had been on the market for 7 days. Also, on Tuesday.. we went to see another one (been on the market for three days) and decided we really liked it and wanted to sleep on it. That night it went off the market. So, we missed out on two that we really liked.

Then came 708 8th Street. It was like a sign. It was in the same neighborhood as 783 Waverly, just on the other side. Pretty much the same floor plan, too. Oh yeah.. I forgot to mention... these have rooftop decks!!! AMAZING!! We knew getting one with a rooftop deck would be lucky b/c those are usually outside of our price range. We kept waiting on it though until my parents could come down on that Friday to take a peek.

So, we peeked at 708 8th Street with parents and also took them to another house with the agent. Before we met up with the agent, I took my parents to the areas we were looking in to get them "accustomed" to what a house costs in the city and where we can afford to buy. They were a little taken aback at first. You really got to see it to believe it. It's just not the same as back home, and that's not an over exaggeration either.

That very Friday my parents came down Rob and I decided to put in an offer. By Friday night around 5 our offer had been submitted... and so had one other offer. Rob and I didn't have high hopes. In fact, on Saturday we spent the entire day with parents in the car driving around and looking at houses. We drove all over the place and went into an open houses. Late Saturday afternoon we found out they hadn't accepted anyone's offer and countered back to both of us asking for a full-price offer. We gave it to them but left in our condition that they contribute $5,500 to closing costs..... but there was still doubt in my mind. We were competing against an all-cash offer. Nothing I could do that. Our realtor had also told us that the seller wanted a late closing date and they liked that about us. Well, that we can help with it! We don't have to be out of our apartment until July and we made sure our sellers knew that.

Amazingly, come Monday morning.. the seller had accepted our offer!! Pretty amazing. There were definitely a lot of people out there praying for us, because I just really didn't think it was going to happen. So, yeah!!! That was quite the feeling!!!!

And then, we scheduled our home inspection. I didn't get to go to the inspection because the inspection was on a filing day for me, so no way out of that one. But, Rob took care of things. No major issues other than there had been some leaking on the rooftop deck that had been repaired but the roof still had some sloping issues, but the seller had just replaced the roof and it was under warranty... so that isn't going to cost anyone any money. The rest of things were rather minor... but we asked for the seller to either fix these things or contribute an additional $2,000. They are going to give us an additional $2,000.

And so now... we're mostly set. Our closing date is set for Wednesday, June 13. And my family is coming down that weekend to help us move. Plus, the Meier's are going to be driving in to town to go on a cruise so they will get to see our new digs, too. Including Rob's grandma!! I wouldn't allow a closing date any later than that because I figure it's pretty priceless that Rob's grandma gets a chance to see where we live.

I do want to say one thing though. My husband has been AMAZING. I have been working until 9-10 o'clock at night for the past two weeks. He has stood strong and done all of the phone calls to the realtor and to the mortgage lenders. While we were pre-approved, we wanted to still shop around for the best rate and lowest fees once we had an address. Rob took care of all of that for me. It well paid off. We ended up with the best interest rate we knew were capable of getting and fees that would keep us around our $5,500 that we want the sellers to pay. He took care of everything. I love him. He didn't complain either. He just got things done and kept me well-informed. Everyone needs a Rob. I'm just sayin'.

So, now we're just out finalizing some of the things we need to still get (homeowners insurance) and working with the bank for anything they need. We also have to get a washer/dryer for the house and a fridge. The seller doesn't want to part for those and I'm not willing to pay very much for their used appliances. I also want to get new carpet...but after talking to some carpet people this weekend, I don't think I can afford to pay cash for all my appliances and carpet (and you know me and debt... that's a no-no!) so the carpet is likely going to have to wait until later. Such is life. We have been to three different scratch & dent appliance places as well as all of your major big box stores. Haven't decided where to buy our appliances yet.. but on the look out for a good deal.

There are a lot of things we want to do to the house too to make it our own. For example, it really needs a fireplace mantle. Badly. So, I'm pretty sure I've found a way to build one on our own on pinterest. That's likely going to be Rob and I's first project. Not to mention the house will need drapes, etc ... and I've found some cool things on pinterest for those, too. Ever heard of painted drapes? Me either... but now I have and I'm pretty sure I'm going to try it out. Never been much of a DIYer, but I'm determined to become one! There's also this painted rug thing I want to try, too.

So, anyways, we did it. We're on our way to buying our first home. I'm sure you'll keep hearing about. :-)

The Amazing Houston Home Race

I know, I know... that was one heck of a load of laundry that it took me a whole week to talk about the Amazing Home Race. I got a little bit sidetracked......So, two weekends ago now, Robert and I entered into the Houston Amazing Home Race. We found out about this from interviewing a real estate agent who just so happened to be one of the main sponsors of the event. The game is similar to the Amazing Race TV show. Only it's done in Houston and the destinations are open houses or houses to be built. Once you arrive at the house, you have to go on a scavenger hunt to find the answer to your clue.

So, let me fill you in on our day. We arrived at the Barry Center which is in Northwest Houston off of Highway 290 and Barker Cypress at about 9 AM to get all of our registration done. We woke up at about 7 AM that Satruday morning after not getting home until midnight on Friday night because of the Winter Jam concert. We made sure to where comfortable clothes, running shoes and eat a well-balanced breakfast. Okay, I don't know about well-balanced, I had a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Rob had some Chocolate Fudge Poptarts. And people tease me about Breakfast of Champions.... little do they know!

Anyways, we drove the 30 miles or so it took to get to the Barry Center and waited in line with the rest of the competitors. Clearly, they didn't know that Rob and I are ALWAYS in the top 1% of everything we do. I just hated to break it to them... haha! You had until 10:00 to get registered and ready. We got some lovely red t-shirts and set out to wait the hour and scope out our competition. The people who brought small children we eliminated as any threat. Seriously, people! You cannot win a race if you everytime you get in the car you have to strap your child in a car seat and vice versa when you get out of the car. Why waste your precious $3.80/gallon gas?! So, that eliminated quite a few. Same for people who brought a dog. Seriously, people!

There were a couple of guy teams that seemed rather threatening...or well, their matching sweat headbands intimated me. And then you had people that stood behind us in line who hadn't even bothered to fill up their gas tank before coming to the race (which they specifically told you to do when you signed up online) and whose phone batteries weren't even full. Losers. Okay... tad bit harsh, but as mom says... "Nice people finish last."

We just waited around until it was race time. At that point they huddled us up all together to do like a team chant and explain the rules. Let me fill you in some more on the race. It was all done via text messaging. The people who hosted the race would send you a system-generated text message with an address and a clue and then you would drive to that address and text back your answer. You had three tries to get it right. The further you had to drive, the more points you got for that answer. The system also knew how many people were at a house and was supposed to direct you to an "unpopulated" house to avoid bottlenecks and such.

So, while they are doing the team huddle Rob and I are making sure to stand towards the back so we can make a clean get away. We had already made sure to park close to the exit and facing forwards so we wouldn't have to put it in reverse. However, during the team huddle, we noticed several people had already pulled up their cars to pick up their other team player (required to play in teams of two). I got slightly worried there and thought we had for sure missed the boat.

Never fear, you had to text "Houston" to the number and that took a little bit to get going so even if you had your car already to pull out, you wouldn't have known which way to turn (left or right) at the exit because it took a solid 3 minutes after the team huddle to receive your first address. Even with the small delay of getting to our car, we were probably the 10th car out and we still had to wait to receive our address.

Oh, I should also say that you had the option of passing a house and getting another address. You might have thought that the distance was too far and would be better to stay somewhere closer to waste less time. Our first clue was in Spring, TX which took us a solid 35 minutes to drive to. Robert really wanted to skip it, but I'm super glad that we didn't. It was a solid 5 point clue. We spent most of the time driving anywhere from 2-10 miles around in Spring and then about the last 30 minutes we had to go to Tomball.

Let me talk about Rob now. He was on his A-game. He was the driver and I was the GPS. Tho, I was on my A-game too because I had to get us there while watching the traffic map and quickly deciding the best route. Luckily, all of our navigating through Houston looking at neighborhoods for our own house hunt paid off because I'm not afraid to veer off the main road if traffic is too bad and head down some neighborhoods. Watch out children!

Rob was a crazy driver. Looking back, I think we only hit one small child. Okay, just kidding!!! But we were flying around Houston. And looking for the clues... my Rob was calm and never got flustered whereas my brain kind of stops working when I'm under pressure. This is why I was always a horrible test taker in school. It's like when I'm under a tense deadline, my brain just goes blank.

We honestly couldn't have done anything any better... other than Rob having to go the bathroom! I could have killed him. I told him to go before we left. We had a whole hour of just waiting around, but about 15 minutes into the drive to the first house, Rob's like I gotta go. He held it until the house, but I told him you can just go by a tree. I don't care what you do... I'm not making an extra stop. He went in an open house bathroom. Is that even allowed?? But, it probably only required an extra 1 minute of time. So, I'll let him off the hook.

We battled traffic and some challenging clues that's for sure. Rob's out on a patio laying his hands across it to determine how many hand widths the patio is. He didn't think twice when he doesn't normally like to get dirty. He counted 39 wine bottles in a house and didn't miss one! Helped me spell the word SMOKING when Z=A, Y=B, etc. He never let me down.

It was an awesome bonding experience, that's for sure. We can work pretty well as a team. He never second guessed my directions (like he could.. he had no idea where we were!) and kept calm as we were running around like crazy people. We had a little pen and notepad to help us (which came in super duper handy!!!).

We were a little sore the next day from getting in and out of the car and running up and down stairs in homes. We were on our way back to Spring from Tomball when the race ended and we had to head back to the Barry Center. We had 55 points. Of course, you have no idea if that's good or bad because you aren't anywhere near a competitor in your own car. So, we just had to wait and see.

We got back and waited a little bit as they said they would give you plenty of time to get back because you had to be present to win the awards. 1st place was $10,000 and 2nd place was a Washer/Dryer combo from Lowe's. I'd say there were about 300 people who were there in the morning but only about 150 that finished the day. Oh.. you weren't supposed to tell your score when you got back so that it could remain a surprise. Of course, Rob felt the need to share when asked and we burst a few people's bubbles. But I told him I didn't want mine burst, so he needed to keep those lips sealed.

Well, they announced 2nd place first obviously.... and I started waving my arms and let out a couple of screams. Rob didn't do much of anything because he apparently was thinking "well darn, we didn't win." But, I mean... 2nd place! Out of 300! My view....In the words of a Bring It On movie "2nd place, Hell Yeah!" We drover over 150 miles to get second place. Pretty awesome to me. The guy was giving my certificate and telling me who to contact, etc and people were taking our pictures. They shook our hands and as we walked back people were telling us congrats. I'll take it.

They announced the winners via a phone call so whoever got the phone call started screaming. Lovel to know that they beat us by only 2 points. We were SOO close to winning. We were one house away from taking it away from them. Of course, I kept hoping that no one would answer and that 1st place didn't show up to claim their prize because you know what that means... 2nd place would become first place. No such luck.

We're pretty sad that we were SO CLOSE to winning $10 grand in cold, hard cash but our washer and dryer were worth $1,200 at Lowe's. That's a heck of a prize. Unfortunately, we had no where to put said washer and dryer except as end tables to our sofa that we never managed to purchase.. so we sold them! We sold them for cash to a co-worker and Rob's work and are putting it towards our down payment. Ca-ching!

So, yes... that was our Amazing Race Adventure. Pretty awesome, right?! It was a heck of a lot of fun and a good "team building" event for me and Rob. Great way to spend a Saturday. If only we had the $10 grand... but I think I still have bragging rights.